Sanjay Sharma (serial killer): Difference between revisions

| conviction  = [[Murder]] x2

Sanjay Sharma was born in 1969 in [[New Delhi]], India, one of two boys in a family with four children.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|last=Helle S. Christensen|date=December 26, 2000|title=Background: Mysterious deaths in the wake of the Indians|language=da|work=[[Jyllands-Posten]]|url=http://jyllands-posten.dk/indland/ECE3306515/baggrund-mystiske-doedsfald-i-inders-koelvand/|archive-url=https://archive.is/tGZK8#selection-1331.1-1331.57|archive-date=November 24, 2014}}</ref> When he was five years old, his older brother, Anil, was sent to a [[boarding school]], but despite this, Sanjay constantly looked up to his brother. When he became an adult, Anil moved to the [[United States]], where he began a career as a businessman in [[New York City]].<ref name=":1" /> Eager to join his brother, Sanjay dropped out of school and moved to the city in search of financial opportunities, first living with his brother and then with some friends. In order to earn an income, he took on jobs at an electronic store and then a grocery store, for which he was described as a hard worker by Anil. While residing in New York City, Sanjay would meet 20-year-old [[Ecuador|Ecuadorian]] national Cecilia Mantuano, with whom he began a romantic relationship.<ref name=":1" />

Despite the disapproval of her family, Singh began dating Sharma, who presented himself as an officer working in the [[New York City Police Department|NYPD]]. While he acted courteous and friendly towards the Singh family, their treated him with suspicion and forbid him from marrying their daughter.<ref name=":1" /> Without the family's knowledge, Sharma and Razi married at a New Delhi temple on July 8, 1997. Not long after, Sharma started to act violently towards his new wife, handcuffing her to his bed, forbidding her to talk to her parents and monitoring her phone calls. On top of that, he demanded that Razi's family give him a car, a new house and a [[dowry]] worth 1,000,000 rupees, something they categorically refused to do, as they were both unable and unwilling to pay the sum.<ref name=":1" /> Angered by their refusal, about a month after the wedding, Sharma burned down the family's house and a neighboring restaurant, before going and threatening his wife's father, Sanwal, with a hammer. In response, the father called the police, who promptly arrested Sharma and charged him with illegal possession of a weapon, after they found that he was also carrying a handgun.<ref name=":1" />

While he was detained for a week, Razi Singh returned to her parents. One day, while looking through her husband's passport, she was mortified to learn that he was actually married to another woman back in the USA.<ref name=":1" /> She wrote a letter to Mantuano and to the local police, pressing for further questions about the dubious past of Sharma, but was unable to receive a reply before he had been released on bail. He then picked up his wife and brought to his mother's home in [[Rohini, Delhi|Rohini]], where it was alleged that he began sedating her to keep her from escaping.<ref name=":1" /> On November 24, 1997, Sharma took out an insurance policy on his wife worth $50,000 from the [[United India Insurance Company]], whereupon he booked two tickets bound for Austria. The couple landed in the country via the [[Innsbruck Airport]] on the evening of November 30th, from where they travelled to [[Absam]], where Sharma's sister and brother-in-law lived.<ref name=":1" /> For the next few days, the couple went on excursions and shopping trips, but on December 4th, while they were alone in the house, Razi decided to take a bath at around 11 o'clock. About an hour and a half later, she was found dead in the bathtub, which suspiciously had a hair dryer in it.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|date=June 27, 2001|title=Indian murder case kept out of Fanø case|language=da|work=B.T.|url=https://www.bt.dk/krimi/indisk-sag-holdt-ude-af-drabssag-fra-fanoe}}</ref>

Despite the circumstances, and Sharma having a weak [[alibi]], an Austrian [[coroner]] declared that the woman had died from [[Electrical injury|electric shock]], but still considered the death worthy of further investigation.<ref name=":1" /> An inquiry by local authorities determined that the death was an accident, but were unable to explain how the hair dryer had found itself in the bathtub. In contrast to their Austrian counterparts, the [[Bureau of Indian Affairs Police|BIA]], which were aware of the couple's tumultuous past and started their own inquiry into the matter.<ref name=":1" /> While Sharma managed to cremate his wife's body in Austria, he was allowed to transport the ashes back to her home in New Delhi, which he mysteriously "lost" on the trip back home, claiming that the bag he had carried them in had been stolen. This claim was disputed by both Singh's family members and police, who arrested him on December 20th and charged him with murder.<ref name=":1" />

== Escape to Denmark, and second marriage ==

Sharma spent a year and a half in custody while awaiting his trial. On March 20, 1999, after a court hearing in New Delhi, he bribed two police officers to drive him to his mother's house, from where he fled New Delhi and India altogether.<ref name=":1" /> After his brother called police and told them Sanjay had attempted contact him, he was declared a fugitive, with his photographs plastered on newspapers and showcased on ''[[India's Most Wanted]].''<ref name=":1" /> Between March and August 1999, Sharma, using the fake names of "Alexander López" and "James Kennedy", travelled between numerous countries, including [[Bangladesh]], [[Thailand]], [[Hong Kong]], [[Jamaica]], [[Costa Rica]], [[Brazil]], [[Germany]] and Austria. On August 27, 1999, he landed in Greenland, where he presented himself as a [[Venezuela|Venezuelan]] citizen by the name of Juan Carlos Sánchez Pinto. When he arrived at the airport, he befriended two local men who allowed him to temporarily stay at their apartment in [[Nuuk]].<ref name=":1" />

After residing with the men for a few days, Sharma would meet 23-year-old Carla Clasen, a divorcée who sold clothes in front of the [[Brugseni]] supermarket, who lived together with her 2-year-old daughter, Natuk.<ref name=":1" /> Not long after they met, Clasen fell in love with the man she knew as Sánchez Pinto, and only fourteen days later, they were married. However, problems began to arise the day after their wedding, when Sharma frequently left home for long hours, allegedly to have sexual interactions two gay men in Nuuk. There were also rumors that he had dabbled into [[hashish]] smuggling, and the reason why he had married Carla is to get another surname and make her a [[Mule (smuggling)|courier]].<ref>{{Cite news|last=Anders-Bo Larsen|date=February 12, 2000|title=Juan Carlos hid in Christiania|language=da|work=B.T.|url=https://www.bt.dk/nyheder/juan-carlos-gemte-sig-paa-christiania}}</ref> A few weeks later, Sharma travelled to [[Esbjerg]], where he bought an apartment in Kvanglundparken. Less than two weeks later, Carla and Natuk moved in with him, and the family remained there for some time.<ref name=":1" />

On October 9, 1999, Sharma rented the "Bacchus" holiday home in [[Fanø]], to where he travelled together with Carla and Natuk, ostensibly to have a relaxing family vacation.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|last=Birger Teckemeier|date=February 11, 2000|title=2-year-old was strangled to death|language=da|work=[[B.T. (tabloid)|B.T.]]|url=https://www.bt.dk/nyheder/2-aarig-blev-kvalt-i-sand}}</ref> However, just three days later, Sharma booked a one-way ticket to [[Ottawa]], [[Canada]] and left without his wife or his adopted child. He never reported either of them missing, and the mysterious disappearances arose suspicion, but when queried about them, Sharma claimed that they were in Venezuela.<ref name=":4">{{Cite news|last=Claus Jessen|date=June 19, 2001|title=Slept with gay friends on their wedding night|language=da|work=[[Ekstra Bladet]]|url=https://ekstrabladet.dk/krimi/article4781765.ece}}</ref> On February 8, 2000, police were called to the cottage when a neighbor reported that he had seen a child's arm sticking out of the sand, near a slope. The authorities dug up the body, which was quickly identified as that of Natuk Clasen, while her mother's corpse was found buried in a nearby toolshed.<ref name=":3" /> A forensic autopsy concluded that Carla had suffered multiple injuries to the head, while Natuk, who was found with sand in her mouth, had likely been suffocated to death. Sharma, or Sánchez Pinto Clasen as he known to Danish police, was officially charged with the murders and declared an international fugitive via [[Interpol]].<ref name=":3" />

Initially, it was believed that Sharma might've been hiding out in [[Copenhagen]], where had acquaintances.<ref name=":3" /> In actuality, Sharma laying low in [[Long Island]], where had recently applied for a taxi driver license. Unbeknownst to him, ever since his arrival from Canada, he had been monitored by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], who suspected him of residing in the country illegally.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Indius Petersen|date=May 24, 2000|title=Suspected murderer is being extradited|language=da|work=B.T.|url=https://www.bt.dk/nyheder/drabsmistaenkt-bliver-udleveret}}</ref> On May 18, 1999, he was arrested in front of a bank in [[Brooklyn]] without incident and driven to a local police station, where he admitted that he was being sought by the Danish authorities for a double homicide, but denied being the actual culprit.<ref name=":1" />

During the course of the trial, witness testimony from friends and acquaintances of both Sharma and Clasen revealed that the former had no love interest in the latter, as less than two hours after his wedding, Sharma had attempted to apply for residency and a work permit.<ref name=":4" /> In addition, two of Sharma's gay, Torben and Jan Kvik, confirmed that on that same wedding night, they had a threesome with Sharma which was recorded on video, and that he had called his wife a "big fat cow" on several occasions.<ref name=":4" />